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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume IV - 2012 19  peninsula and for the British to control Burma, India, and Malaya. The friendship French President Félix Faure showed to the Siamese monarch during the time of King Chulalongkorn’s visit to Paris 1897, was motivated in part by his awareness of the possibility of a con fl ict between England and Russia. The political circumstances in Europe, around this time, were tense with the con fl icts of the different interests between the European powers, England, France, Russia, particularly in the area of colonial politics. These political tensions help to clarify the reasons behind the tactics of the Siamese monarch, when he adopted to forge relations with some of the major powers at the time, namely Russia and Germany. In befriending Russia and Germany, the King hoped to preserve the sovereignty of his Kingdom, against the colonial designs of the French and British, while also achieving a balance of power between the various foreign in fl uences in Siam. During the reigns of King Rama IV and King Rama V, there were just a small number of Western countries with a significant presence in Siam. These were principally France, England, Russia, Germany and the United States. The shifting nature of the relations between many of the major European powers at the time is particularly useful in explaining the strategy pursued by King Chulalongkorn i.e. to “lean on Russia” to “intimidate France.” 9 According to the remarks of the former European Union ambassador, H.E. Klauspeter Schmallenbach in February 2003, King Chulalongkorn’s success in establishing cordial relations with the European powers, at such a dif fi cult time, was no less an achievement than that of French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann, who convinced his German counterpart to sign a treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community in the 1950s, 10 not long after the conclusion of the Second World War. 11 9 Pornsan Watanangura, Tosporn Kasikam, Relations between the Kingdom of Siam and the Royal Houses of Europe in the Documents Pertaining to King Chulalongkorn’s First Visit to Europe in 1897 , p. 48-49, 94-98, 105-111. 10 Schumann relied for success on close cooperation with Konrad Adenauer, the fi rst Chancellor of the newly-formed Federal Democratic Republic of Germany, a country that historically had been an enemy 10 of the French and that had only recently occupied their country. Then in 1963, at a time when many of the countries of Western Europe were still highly protective of their recently acquired independence, France, represented by President Charles de Gaulle, and Germany under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, signed a Friendship Treaty. 11 H.E. Klauspeter Schmallenbach, King Chulalongkorn – A First True Honourary European. In: The Journal of European Studies , Special Issue, Year 12, Volume 1, January – June 2004, p.11-79. Pornsan Watanangura